One of my favorite authors is Terry Pratchett. He is amazingly prolific and his books seem to just keep getting better over time. Pratchett’s latest book is Making Money which is the second book featuring Moist von Lipwig, the criminal who was forced to create the postal system for Ankh-Morpork in Going Postal. All of this makes it sound difficult to approach for someone not familiar with the Discworld novels. Here are two reasons why you should read Pratchett:

• He’s one of the all-time funniest novelists
• The novels are “About Something”. In addition to being hilarious, the novels take some event in history or some aspect of contemporary culture and remap them on into the context of a fantasy civilization.

It may be daunting to approach a series of more than 40 books, but the good news is with Pratchett you can pick up any of the books and still enjoy it outside the context of the other books. If you want a more guided approach, there is a reading order guide (PDF version) which recommends several entry points to the series and where to go from there.

I saw Stardust this weekend and enjoyed it very much. It is the sort of sweet natured fairy tale that The Princess Bride was, but isn’t very similar other than being in a fantasy setting.

The movie is changed quite a bit from the book, but not in any ways that I found offensive. The changes are either essential compression for movie purposes or are in with the spirit of the book (Robert DeNiro’s Captain Shakespeare is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen him do). Stardust moves along at a nice pace. You get a good feel for the characters and there aren’t unnecessary lulls in the plotting.

I loved many of little details in the film: the goat turned into a man, Captain Shakespeare’s crew, the choir of ghostly brothers observing and commenting on the story.

Roger Ebert was very wrong in his review. The plot isn’t overly contrived and the deus ex machina that he accuses the film of is part of the nature of a fairy tale. Also, other reviewers who have pointed out violence in the film are being overly sensitive. In comparison, the Princess Bride was a more violent film.

Stardust is a well-made romantic fairy tale adventure. I recommend it for anyone who wants to enjoy a couple of hours smiling through a fun story.

I’m apparently a little (a lot) behind in the review party. I’ve only read the first three books in the series, so at this point, I can only review the movie and a movie. Order of the Phoenix is one of the best films in the series so far. The story moves along at a good clip, the story is accessible to those who haven’t read the books or even (in the case of Virginia), those who haven’t seen previous movies.

The story has gotten progressively darker as the series works to a close, and the film reflects this change in mood well. The actors are growing well as actors and the performances here are very good. In particular, Imelda Staunton plays Dolores Umbridge as the sort of person who uses a pleasant exterior to cover a ruthless and viciously conformist interior. I love the way the film uses the Umbridge character to make comments on standardized testing, teacher evaluation, and using traditional values as a cover for villainy. I also love how the film points out how authorities (in this case the Ministry of Magic) can be in such systematic denial about threats that it turns on those who would point out those threats. Very interesting.

In other Harry Potter news, I’m only half-way through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as compared to most people I know who finished the book within hours of the Saturday release. Too much life going on to dedicate that much time to reading at the moment - which isn’t really a bad thing.

Courtesy of Instapundit, I read today that Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age will be made into a miniseries on the Sci-Fi channel. Wow.

I’m of mixed feelings here. I’m excited that it’s being done, but Sci-Fi channel’s work varies in quality a bit. George Clooney is producing (I’m moderately positive about this) and Neal Stephenson himself is doing the adaptation (WOW!). Who is going to direct?!?!

They’ll have to dial down several things for TV (the long walk on the short pier - the nudity & sex in the underwater tunnels) but I’m cautiously optimistic that this could be very cool.